Executive summary

Hawaiian Airlines isn’t just an airline, but an airline that represents the state of Hawaii itself. The customers are different as well: they tend to visit Hawaii for celebratory occasions, like weddings, honeymoons, special anniversaries, and multi-generational family gatherings, making the emotional stakes of travel even higher than normal for air travel. Therefore, the Hawaiian sense of “Aloha” at the heart of the airline’s brand reputation must permeate every interaction to ensure that the high emotional stakes of the guests’ travel experience is served by a uniquely Hawaiian sense of hospitality.

The social media team at headquarters coordinates globally with team members who manage channels in Japan, China, and Korea — in different languages and with a decidedly anti one-size-fits-all approach. The internal consistency Khoros provides allows the entire social team to work faster and smarter to address customer needs. The social media customer service team in particular, and Hawaiian Airlines in general, makes every customer feel special, despite the volume they manage. That’s the spirit of Aloha.

By swapping hard-coded data in spreadsheets for Khoros’ dashboards, Hawaiian Airlines increased their social teams’ efficiency and responsiveness alike. Ultimately, Hawaiian Airlines is now more aware of what their customers are talking about and how far along each issue is in the resolution cycle, which makes each customer engagement more relevant and impactful. Rather than starting anew with each customer issue, Hawaiian Airlines is able to view the history of all customer conversations, making it possible to pinpoint previous engagements and pick the conversation up where it left off. Also, by having access to Khoros Care analytics, they’re able to measure and report on how successfully they’ve tracked against their KPIs — to grow their audience and keep them engaged — in a seamless, easy-to-access way.

"We identify different personas for [different] markets. For example, in Japan our guests really love Hawaiian culture — the Hawaiian music, hula, and food. So we serve them that type of content. But, in the western U.S., because we are such an easy hop for a weekend trip, we tend to speak more about upcoming concerts, festival, and events that make for a great, very special weekend away.”

— Asiana Ponciano 
Consumer Affairs Manager, Hawaiian Airlines